


Hidden Blood

by Merfilly



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-30 18:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18321152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Why did Gemma marry Fax... was it more than just her people? Was there maybe a Hidden child of the Blood...





	Hidden Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/gifts).



> I know we got one Blooded cousin in later books, but this supposes that Gemma knew one of Lessa's brothers had a half-blood child.

There were two reasons that Fax acquired his wife of Crom so painlessly to himself.

One was because the Lady Gemma knew that Tradition was against any woman Holding in her own name, no matter how many Holds were run, in truth, by their Lady. To protect her people, Gemma would do as needed, an heiress to Crom and Ruatha alike in her Blood.

The other, though, had more to do with the child hidden among a hardy mining hold, a child born more directly to the Blood of Ruatha. The girl was small and thin with the jet black hair so common in the line, features stamped with the grey-green eyes and delicacy that made Adessa stand out among her own peers.

As long as that child remained out of sight, there was hope for Ruatha. One day, that girl could mean the difference between salvation and more war within the lands that screamed with the slaughter of the family of Kale and Adessa.

Gemma would protect that hope, that child, to her dying breath, even as she hid the signs of mourning she carried with her over the loss of her cousins in Ruatha.

+++

Gemma saw, in truth, the youngest of Kale's children, his beloved daughter, and despite the pain, tried to find breath, tried to tell the girl she was not alone, to seek Crom's hidden jewel…

…but it was not to be.

+++

Bedella noted the slender young woman among the miners and others in the tithe caravan with interest. There was something about her that reminded Bedella of someone, someone she'd seen recently.

"Weyrmate mine," she said, getting R'mart's attention from where the man was waiting to greet the traders. "The woman… girl, really, I think. Doesn't she look familiar?"

The Telgar Weyrleader looked, and was startled, for there was a resemblance to one person indeed. "Aye, Bedella. She has the look of Ruatha, though we were told that line was all but extinct. Yet she favors the Benden Weyrwoman strongly."

"Perhaps when we hold a conclave in this time, we should mention it," Bedella said. She should make a note; her memory had suffered ever since a bad fall in the last Turn of their own Pass. If Lessa's line had been thought extinct, she should know of a kinswoman, or the chance of one.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe to be continued.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Meeting Kalea](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517099) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




End file.
